Lilly Wild

Surname:

Wild

Given names:

Lilly

Given address:

Elm Row

Sheet No: 55

Town/Suburb:

Central Dunedin

City/Region:

Dunedin

Notes:

Originally transcribed as 55 Lily Wild

Biography contributed by Rin Smeaton

Lilly Wild was born Elizabeth Wild in Portsmouth, Hampshire, England in 1856. She was the second eldest daughter of Sarah Lamb and Alfred Wild and had five siblings.

When Lilly was six years old, she set off for New Zealand aboard the Aloe in February 1863 with her family. Her mother, Sarah, was pregnant with Lilly’s sister, Ann, during this long and arduous journey to the other side of the world. It is highly probable that Sarah died while giving birth to Ann soon after the Aloe’s arrival in Auckland, June, that year. Ann died nine months later in 1864.

Lilly and her older sister, Ellen, were both likely tasked with bringing up their younger siblings and the responsibility of taking care of the household. The family settled in Ponsonby, Auckland where her father remained as a master shoemaker with his family.

Lilly became a tailoress and this was possibly how and where she got involved with the women’s suffrage movement as she signed the 1892 petition while living and working in Ponsonby. The following year she moved to Dunedin to help a friend Harriet Morison run her household in Elms Row. This is where Lilly signed the 1893 petition.

With Harriet heavily involved in the women’s industrial movement, Lilly would have been exposed to plenty of ground-breaking thinking, edgy conversation and feminism. She never married. Both Lilly and Harriet returned to Auckland in 1908 where Harriet became head of the Women’s Employment Bureau. They lived in Avondale on a farm until Harriet’s death in 1925. Lilly then lived with her sister, Ellen. She died in 1932, at the age of 76 in Auckland. Lilly is buried in the non-conformist section of Waikumete Cemetery.